SpecialSection By Yaakov D. Homnick Leaders on the Hill Part II of our series on a new crop of young American Orthodox political leaders— all under forty-five—who are working to improve American life and society.

Heimish in the White House

At a rabbinical convention in 2003, the star speaker was Tevi Troy. Addressing the conference, he described his experience as an Or- help. But when his boss asked for a thodox Jew working in the highest levels of government in Wash- sandwich on Passover, the aide had to refuse, since it is prohibited to benefit ington, DC. He began his career, he said, on the staff of former from chametz. The outraged senator Senator (R-MO). One day he approached the chief terminated his employment. of staff to request a day off for Shavuot. At the time Troy gave me his card, but somehow our paths never over- “Never heard of it,” his supervisor Troy dramatized the advantage of lapped again until I located him at the balked. working for devout non-Jews by con- Hudson Institute in DC recently. We “It celebrates the anniversary of the trasting this episode with the story of got a chance to catch up on his adven- Jewish people receiving the Torah at an Orthodox young man who was tures these last few years. Mount Sinai.” an aide to a secular Jewish senator. “Oh, Pentecost! Why didn’t you When asked to buy his boss non- Say It Again! say so?” kosher food, he did it, relying “I was given opportunities to on the halachic position serve the country which Yaakov D. Homnick is an author of books that he was only has been the and articles on Jewish subjects in Hebrew facilitating most welcom- and English, and recently released a CD of that which ing in history to original Jewish music. He writes a weekly could be eas- the Jewish peo- column on religion, politics and culture in ily accessed ple, and I have the American Spectator. without his been honored

12 I JEWISH ACTION Spring 5771/2011 Ask to perform that service,” says Troy, who has been employed s’’xc About Our Are you in Florida by Republican senators and presidents for more than a Early Bird for Pesach? decade. “I was very fortunate in working under superiors Discount who were profoundly committed to religion. They always Golf with respected and facilitated my mitzvah observance, making every accommodation.” Ashcroft was his first boss, arguably an easier entry point because Troy became the second Orthodox Jew on staff. Always easier to follow a blazed trail. Ashcroft was not only an Evangelical, he was a member of a fairly small de- nomination which often experiences derision from among Christian ranks. Troy felt this made Ashcroft more sensitive to the religious needs of the Jews in his office. Friday, April 22, 2011 Later, Troy had the opportunity to publicly reciprocate Chol Hamoed Pesach the loyalty he had received from his employer. When  at  Ashcroft was nominated to be the first attorney general in DORAL RESORT & SPA the administration of President George W. Bush, he met re- The Great White Course sistance from secular Jewish groups including the Anti- MIAMI, FL Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the National Council jxpk raf • FULL LUNCH • REFRESHMENTS ALL DAY UNDER THE of Jewish Women, who were afraid that “his religious views SUPERVISION AWARDS RAFFLES, GREAT PRIZES & GIVEAWAYS OF THE would have an impact on his role as attorney general.” • Troy countered with an article in SPONSORED BY HOSTED BY THE GOLDWASSER FAMILY entitled “My Boss, The Fanatic.” He wrote: “Ashcroft, OF MIAMI BEACH as his detractors suggest, is a religious fanatic, because his & EDEN TOURS religion dictates that he cannot smoke, gamble, drink, curse For more than 41 years, OHEL has strengthened the community or dance. But it may be precisely because he is scorned by serving the needs of thousands of individualsand families as a fanatic that he has been so tolerant of my own through a multitude of pionee ring social service programs. religious practices . . . ” For more information: 1-888-311-OHEL • (917) 923-8573 • Email: [email protected] When Ashcroft joined the Bush administration as attor- ney general, Troy went to work first for Elaine Chao, then Initially, that dinner followed the pattern of diplomatic the secretary of labor, and subsequently in the White House events with Israeli heads of state, where the kosher appetiz- as President Bush’s liaison to the Jewish community. The ers were on one buffet table and the non-kosher on another. president told him that he wanted the liaison office to do The non-Jewish participants ate the food prepared by White more than arrange meetings with the same leaders of Jewish House while the kosher fare was imported from a local organizations whose names are always in the newspapers. caterer. One year, during Bush’s first term, an Orthodox Bush wanted to encounter lay people, community people, guest accidentally ate from the wrong table! what he described as “grassroots.” When First Lady Laura Bush got wind of the fiasco, she Before one such gathering, Troy briefed the president vowed it never happen again. Henceforth the Chanukah din- about an elderly Jewish woman who had spent many years ner would feature only strictly kosher food prepared on the in Orthodox education who would be attending. The presi- premises. Soon a team of Chassidic Jews with beards and tz- dent knew not to shake her hand, and he treated her with ut- itzit were zapping the White House ovens with blowtorches most deference. But when he delivered remarks about the while the Secret Service fidgeted edgily in the background. military situation in Afghanistan, he got a little carried away This was the Era of Bush: a glatt chicken in every pot and and used a vulgar word to describe the terrorists. Suddenly two minivans in every garage. he caught himself. To make the dinner more hospitable for the devout, Troy “I’m sorry, Ma’am,” he said, glancing in her direction. instituted a minyan for Maariv in the Red Room. The White “Say it again!” she retorted, and the audience burst House ushers knew to keep the room off-limits to others into laughter. that night. The only problem with the Jewish crowd, Troy chuckles, was the reluctance to depart. Generally, when Chanukah at the White House events are scheduled, say, from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M., folks start With Troy in charge, the White House Chanukah dinner filing to the door before the cuckoo’s first caw and clear the turned into a major event. “Whichever list we had, it was al- threshold by the eighth. Not so our Chanukah revelers; their ways the wrong list,” Troy jests. Rabbis and lay leaders kept oil kept burning. The clock struck 8:00, and no one showed a calling to wangle invitations for themselves or colleagues. sign of budging. At one point, Karl Rove, chief adviser to President Bush, One year, the ahems were echoing and the hints were exclaimed: “The Chanukah dinner is the hottest ticket dropping, yet nary an eyelash twitched. The last busboy was in Washington!” leaving for the last bus, but the Jews were still heeding Ec-

Spring 5771/2011 JEWISH ACTION I 13 clesiastes: “If the spirit of the ruler asserts itself over you, do address a Jewish group came between speeches by Rove and not leave your place . . .” Exasperated, Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. He told the crowd: “Now I know how Minchah feels Bolten, himself a Jew, exclaimed: “It is time to have the on Yom Kippur between Mussaf and Neilah . . .” honor guard unsheathe their ceremonial swords!” Troy Troy’s four children were born while he worked for jumped in to restore the mood by telling the old joke that Bush, each receiving a personal letter from the president to commemorate the birth. His kids never saw him during waking hours between Former President George W. Bush meets with Tevi Troy and family in the Oval Office. one Shabbat and the next. He left before Pictured are Troy, his wife, Kami, and children: Noah (in Kami’s arms), Rina, Ezra, and they arose and Ruth (not visible here). Photos courtesy of the White House Photo Office returned after they went to sleep. As for his wife, Kami, Troy declares that were she not Jewish, she would be a candidate for sainthood. The couple lives in Silver Spring, Maryland and belongs to the Kemp Mill Synagogue, an OU-member shul. In the last year of the second Bush term, Troy served as deputy secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Michael Leavitt.

Soon a team of Chassidic Jews with beards and tzitzit were zapping the White House ovens with blowtorches while the Secret Service fidgeted edg- ily in the background.

Gentiles leave but don’t say goodbye while Jews say goodbye There he sent word to all senators that his Friday meetings but don’t leave. Rove loved that and adopted it into his reper- must end an hour before sundown. At that time, his non- toire of repartee. Jewish assistant would hustle him out the Another incident reflected on the eccentric cultural fla- door. While he raced home in the car, vor of the Orthodox Jew. The president often was more effi- official business was being trans- cient with his time than his scheduler anticipated, so visitors acted on his cell phone until he were asked to be standing by an hour be- pulled up at the garage door. fore their appointed time. Once a group Troy did not head back to his of rabbis were to have a session with native , , the president, but when Bush strode after Michelle Obama in forty-five minutes early, no one had hung the new drapes. arrived yet. Troy ran frantically out He stayed in Washing- into the street, where he was shocked ton at the Hudson In- to see all the conferees huddled at stitute, doing the corner of Seventeenth and whatever it is people Pennsylvania, earnestly playing do in think tanks dur- Jewish geography. ing the lean years. All in all, says Nathan Dia- Does that mean that ment, director of the OU’s In- if a Republican sends stitute for Public Affairs (IPA) Obama to an early in DC, when Troy was working shower in 2012, Troy for Bush, “We had a member of is ready to return to our community literally steps active duty? from the Oval Office, and we Hey, is the chief could be certain our concerns rabbi Jewish?  were being heard in the White House.” Diament captures the heimish feel by recalling one Tevi Troy and Former occasion when Troy’s turn to First Lady Laura Bush

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